GARY ALAN SPANOVICH Founder & Executive Director of the Institute has accomplished humanitarian work in India since 1992 and in 1995 built a school for street children there with Rotarian assistance. Through this work he began to do humanitarian work for the 53 Tibetan Refugee camps in India and then began to work directly with the Dalai Lama on world peace. Working with five large Universities in Oregon along with a planning committee of Oregon’s senior faith leaders and also Oregon’s Governor and First Lady, the Mayor of Portland and former US Senator Mark O. Hatfield, he held his first World Peace Conference in 2001. Since then the Institute has held over a dozen major events in Oregon and will hold its first international conference later this year. Mr. Spanovich envisions holding a major world conference once a year and producing a book on the “teachings” of the Nobel Laureates at each event, to assist with “stopping the killing” in the world.

ALEXANDRA (ALI) KOCH

Press Secretary Ali Koch has been a life-long humanitarian and advocate of peace whose goal in life is to follow Gandhi's advice and "Be the change you wish to see in the world". At the age of 16 Ali traveled to Kenya, Africa and discovered that her passion in life was to serve the world's poor and dedicate her life to the world peace movement. Since then that is exactly what she's done. A University of Oregon alumni, Ali majored in Cultural Anthropology with a triple minor in Business, Philosophy and Nonprofit Management. As the Wholistic Peace Institute's first hire, Ali was offered the position of Press Secretary in April during President Kim Dae Jung's visit. Since beginning her work with the WPI Ali has: assisted in hosting the Vice President of Afghanistan; traveled to Seoul, South Korea for the "2008 Global Forum on Civilization and World Peace"; met with Nobel Peace Laureate and former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in his Presidential library in Seoul; and taken on the role as event director for the WPI's September 6th rooftop dinner and concert which will raise money to build a Peace School in Afghanistan.

The Institute was formed  to bring to bear the “creativity and the unique knowledge” of the Nobel Peace Laureates to solving the world’s most violent prone and dangerous problem areas. Areas of violence, such as the Middle East conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians; the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula; the nuclear crisis between India and Pakistan; the conflict between Taiwan and China; and others. Each of these areas of violence could precipitate the launch of a nuclear exchange and the killing of millions of people. They are the world’s most volatile areas and bringing the wisdom of multiple numbers of Nobel Peace Laureates and asking them to offer up either a new peace plan or suggestions on how existing peace plans, which may be stalled, can begin working, is the central means by which the Institute intends to reduce the violence in the world.

How Did The Institute Get Started

The Institute was started after a group of senior Oregon faith leaders became involved in the first visit of the Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Laureate. As part of the visit Gary Alan Spanovich organized an effort to bring five additional Nobel Peace Laureates to Portland to work with the Dalai Lama on a World Peace Conference. The Oregon faith leaders who are now all part of the Institute’s Advisory Board, helped to plan and create the conference. In all 6 Nobel Peace Laureates came: the Dalai Lama; Lech Walesa; Betty Williams; Adolfo Perez Esquivel; Amnesty International; Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Helen Caldicott also participated in the conference. The theme of the conference was “a spiritual search for world peace” and the conference intended to explore how “compassion could be added to the diplomatic peace seeking process”. For this reason former U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield and Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey co-moderated the conference. Having a former high ranking elected official of the United States government working with an ordained minister, with a group of Nobel Peace Laureates on this issue of “compassion in diplomacy” produced many results. The outcome of this conference was a book, “How To Achieve World Peace: 6 Nobel Peace Laureates Answer The Question”, which is available for $9.95 from the Institute and a series of videos on the Nobel Peace Laureates ($25 each). After this conference the overall organizing committee requested that a non-profit be formed to put on these conferences yearly, in different cities of the world and where the conferences could do the most good in reducing the violence and the killing that goes on.

What Is The Mission Of The Institute?

To start a “world peace movement” which will result in a less violent world and one in which conflict, which is inevitable in human nature is settled with new ideas, new approaches and continual dialogue. To do this the Institute builds all of its programs around a two pronged approach. First the Nobel Peace Laureates of the world are acknowledged as the leaders of the world peace movement, for they have actually brought about peace to a dangerous international conflict, the peace has held, and they have been recognized with the world’s most prestigious peace prize, a Nobel. These human beings have acquired “special peace knowledge” through their experience which can be applied to other conflict areas. Bringing them together in multiple numbers will allow them to formulate a “Nobel Peace Plan” can make the difference between millions of people living or dying. The second prong of the approach is to apply new methods of mediation, conflict resolution and dialogue from a Wholistic Approach.
An approach that recognizes the inter-dependence of all life.

The Vision Of The Institute & The Nobel Peace Initiatives

The Institute has a vision to hold ten world peace conferences over the next ten years with multiple Nobel Peace Laureates as the keynote speakers. We will start with a Wholistic Peace Plan which will begin the conferences and which the Nobel Peace Laureates will take as a starting place. The Wholistic Peace Plan will involve academic leaders from our network of world Universities we are affiliated with and professional peacemakers, such as diplomats and others. From the dialogue and the work, the Nobel Peace Laureates will propose a Nobel Peace Plan for each of these conflict areas. The Institute will then publish the results of their work in both video and book form and disseminate the work to both governmental officials as well as the world at large. At the end of this ten year period we hope to have brought a body of advanced knowledge on how the world can achieve peace.

Who Is Involved In The Institute?

Nobel Peace Laureates, congressional leaders, university presidents, faith leaders from the United States and from abroad, major religious organizations, ordinary citizens, students and teachers at all levels, government officials, NGO’s who participate in the conferences, benefactors.

What Does Wholistic Mean?

The Institute uses the words Wholistic and Holistic inter-changeably. Holistic comes from the Greek word Holos, which means “to heal”. Essentially Holistic refers to an “inner holiness or inner healing” or a place of wholeness, which when connected to, can say reverse disease. This spelling and this application is most commonly used by medical and nursing professions (such as the American Holistic Medical Association) who see the human body as one whole rather than a sum of parts. Holistic assumes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Gary Alan Spanovich, Executive Director of the Institute has developed a Wholistic Approach for applying this concept to strategic planning and decision-making over the last 15 years and has taught and developed curriculum in it at Marylhurst University. He has completed a manuscript on how to apply it to governmental, corporate and world peace issues which the Dalai Lama has written a two page foreword for, praising the importance of this innovative approach. In order to apply the approach to decision-making issues and in a context of professional endeavors, the word Wholistic is more relevant. For the approach seeks to create a “greater sense of wholeness” by employing all the methods by which a human being operates, i.e., mental (new ways of thinking about situations); emotional (new ways to bring healing and compassion into conflicts between people); spiritual and intuitive (how to tap the inherent power of our creativity to think of new solutions and to try them); and physical (how create new systems that are practical and that work).

What Is The Wholistic Peace Institute’s Ten Year Vision?

A. To hold Ten World Peace Conferences On The World’s Most Dangerous Problem Areas

1. To prepare Wholistic Peace Plans for these dangerous problem areas;
2. To select ten cities world wide and hold ten international world peace conferences in University settings in those cities so that we might also inspire college students to work for world peace and faculty to teach about world peace;
3. To invite multiple Nobel Peace Laureates to lead those conferences

B. To publish a book on the results of each world peace conference as well as video tape material and to disseminate the results to as wide an audience world-wide as possible.

C. To build a world wide network of Universities which will start "peace studies departments" and begin to teach these new Wholistic Methods in their curriculum as well as teach classes on world peace so that we will prepare our future leaders, today’s college students to seek a non-violent future.

D.To engage the world’s high schools teachers in teaching about world peace, Nobel Peace Laureates and the many times in history that conflicts have been settled peacefully.

E.To begin a world peace movement which will engage ordinary citizens in the discussion, the study and the participation in the many forms of world peace work now available.

F.To hold Student Peace Summits in the world’s high schools, encouraging a junior version of the Nobel Peace Prize to be given to students, selected by the schools students themselves and to bring Nobel Peace Laureates to large events with students. Similar to the 8,000 high school students who were brought together in Portland, Oregon in 2001 to hear the Dalai Lama (1989 Nobel Peace Prize) give a talk on non-violence.

G.To offer scholarships to those who wish to pursue a career in peacemaking.

Commendations on the Institute & Gary Alan Spanovich, Founder

“I am writing on behalf of Gary Spanovich. As a member of the planning committee for the 2001 conference and a co-moderator, I believe he will utilize your funding effectively and I hope that you will decide in favor of this important project to promote world peace and intercultural communication”.
Mark O. Hatfield, Former US Senator From Oregon

“I am writing in support of the Wholistic Peace Institute which was formed with a focus on reducing world violence and exploring how compassion can be used in diplomatic relations. The international attention this organization has received in such a short period of time is notable."
David Wu, US House of Representatives, Oregon

“In compiling this book, Gary Alan Spanovich incorporates what I think of as fundamental human values. I believe his explanation of how spirituality can be introduced into the workplace will have compelling appeal to anyone interested in creating a more peaceful and happier world, whatever work they do.”
His Holiness The Dalai Lama On Mr. Spanovich’s Forthcoming Book, Workplace Spirituality